Drawer safety latches have been developed for consumer purchase and installation which, when installed, require an extra step of manipulation from the user in order to open a given drawer. The purpose of this extra step is to make opening the drawer more difficult for children, thereby protecting the children from dangerous contents, such as knives, which may be kept in the drawer.
A number of two-piece drawer latches are on the market, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,505,526. That two-piece drawer latch has a hooked extension attached to the drawer that the consumer must attach to the drawer and a catch for the hook, which the consumer must align to the hooked extension and install on the cabinet. These steps are fraught with opportunities for frustration, as a small misalignment will render the device useless. Also, the positioning of the device interferes with manual access to the contents of the drawer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,044 teaches a one-piece safety latch that is secured to an exterior surface of the drawer by threaded fasteners (screws or bolts). The safety latch extends outward to abut a cabinet frame member with a stepped abutment when the drawer is moved toward an open position. An extension from the abutment is used to manually release the abutment and open the drawer. One disadvantage of this approach is that holes have to be made in the drawer. For antique or expensive desks and cabinets, this approach may be unacceptable. Furthermore, by placing the entire latch on an exterior of the drawer, the release is made easily accessible to children. Yet another disadvantage is the time required for installation, as alignment may be difficult.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,955,380 describes a latch that adheres to the interior wall of the drawer and extends out into the drawer to support a latch that engages the upper cabinet frame member defining the opening for the drawer. This latch engages the cabinet frame when opening or closing the drawer. The gap in the latch, which is fixed in size, may not fit all cabinet frame members. In some applications, the latch may not be installable high enough to engage the cabinet frame member. Because it extends over the cabinet interior when not in use, it interferes with manual access to the contents of the drawer. The release for this latch rises above the drawer top, where children can easily see it.